We have an exciting evening planned for nature and art lovers for you to enjoy the ‘Mystery of Moths’Before you come we will have set a moth trap!! -in the wildflower margins of the farm surrounding Rabley Gallery, near Marlborough. Chilled and unharmed, these little beauties will be available for a moth identification session with experts Peter Marren and Anna Forbes – Project Officer, ARK.Followed by drinks in the courtyard garden and a talk with Peter Marren surrounded by the beautiful exhibition at Rabley Gallery, Sarah Gillespie, Wessex and Other Moths.

FUND RAISING - All the money raised from this event will be donated to ARK - Action for the River KennetOur target is to raise £500 to fund a community planting of 2,000 Snake’s head fritillary bulbs at Stonebridge Wild River Reserve, Marlborough.

Tickets will be limited to 20. We request that face masks are worn inside the building.

Peter Marren is an acclaimed Naturalist and author of many books on the natural world including Emperors, Admirals and Chimney-Sweepers: The weird and wonderful names of butterflies and moths “Moths are to the dark what butterflies are to the day. They do the same things as butterflies: they fly, in some cases for long distances; they seek a mate; they lay eggs on a particular plant or tree for their caterpillars to feed on; they feed for themselves on nectar (though some moths do not feed at all as adults); and their coloured wings either camouflage the moth when at rest or advertise the fact that they are poisonous.Britain has 60 breeding butterflies but around 2,500 moths. Two-thirds of these are small and known as micros. The remaining third – the macros – are larger and easier to identify. They include hawk-moths, tiger-moths, and moth families with curious names such as footmen, burnets, pugs, thorns and prominents. Most moths are harmless and often subtly beautiful. The notorious clothes-moths are just 3 or 4 species but they have given the whole tribe a bad name. Moths, I will try and persuade you, are interesting, even lovable. Between them are a whole range of different life-styles – different ways of surviving – and moth species are wonderfully adapted to their given environments from the coast to the mountain-tops, and including gardens. My own garden had at least 300 different species of moth flying through it at one time or another. All larger moths have English names. They were usually named in a spirit of admiration and many of these poetic names are quite ancient – up to 300 years old.I will talk about moths with the help of a range of slides showing you some of the different kinds, and will answer any questions afterwards. I will also bring some books on identification, including my own Emperors, Admirals and Chimney-sweepers. If you want me to identify any moths I can do that as well. Happy to sign books too.” PM

About Peter Marren

I am a former nature conservationist: I served in the former Nature Conservancy Council, now Natural England, in England and Scotland, for 14 years. Since then I have been a free-lance naturalist, journalist and writer. I have written 24 books including Bugs Britannica, which is about the folklore of invertebrates, Rainbow Dust, which is about butterflies, and Emperors, Admirals and Chimney-sweepers, which is about the names of butterflies and moths. My lockdown book, written with two friends, The Consolation of Nature, is about nature walks in the spring around Ramsbury.

INSTAGRAM AUCTION OF NEW SARAH GILLESPIE MEZZOTINT ‘SCALLOPED OAK’

In celebration of beautiful Moths Sarah Gillespie has generously gifted this beautiful new mezzotint engraving “scalloped Oak’ to raise much need funds for ARK conservation projects.Follow @rableygallery on Instagram - DM your bid. subject MOTH and your bid £*Sarah GillespieScalloped Oak, 2021Mezzotint engravingEdition of 1/20Paper Size 24 x 24cn Plate size 18 x 18cmOn Arches moulin du GuéPrinted in a blue/black ink.

Make your bid today!Follow @rableygallery on Instagram - DM me your bid.

*We have put a reserve of £150 on this beautiful artwork. Bids will close at midnight on14th August. This is a brand new fine art edition and will be launched for sale soon RRP £550.

EXHIBITION RABLEY GALLERY

Until 14 August 2021 Sarah Gillespie Wessex & Other Moths

Rabley Gallery is delighted to welcome Sarah Gillespie to the gallery with her meticulously detailed studies of moths, highlighting the diverse and mysterious beauty of these night creatures. From her mezzotint prints the shimmering moths emerge humming from the darkness. The velvet black of the inked paper releases their luminous spirits. “Misunderstood and overlooked moths are deeply unloved by most humans. Unseen in the dark and dismissed as ‘dull’ in favour of their flashier, diurnal cousins, the butterflies. Moths are in fact more numerous and more varied and are a major part of our biodiversity and hold vital roles in the wildlife ecosystem” Sarah Gillespie

It is the moonlight refracting in the dusty scales of the moth’s wings that reveals their iridescent and intricate patterns. The making of the Mezzotints is synonymous with the surface of the moths. Through this slow and painstaking method, Gillespie draws each moth from the toothed surface of the printing plate by burnishing the light, trapping the detailed pattern, tones and shape into the surface. There are no hard outlines as gradual tones edge to the darkness surrounding them.

Contact –Meryl Ainslie

Rabley Gallery , Rabley Barn, Mildenhall, Marlborough, WILTSHIRE, SN8 2LW

Website www.rableygallery.com

Email info@rableygallery.com

Tel 01672 511999

Please book prior to visiting the gallery

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